Coming Up for Air
by Bethgreenewarriorprincess
Summary: Emma and Dylan are going back up to the lake so she can conquer her demon and jump back in, this time without a fit of coughing and thinking she might actually die. She had tried it once. She'd jumped in, not thinking of the consequences for a girl who had lungs made of glass. But this time will be different. This time, she's with Dylan. Dylemma smutty fluffy fun M


**This story exists somewhere in the liminal space between Emma and Dylan finally making love and before they leave for Seattle. And it's warm outside. And her scars are healed because it's very unsanitary to go swimming in a lake teeming with bacteria so soon after a surgical procedure. But I am bending all rules of canon for this story. Because I can. Lol Take it as you will…..It's unabashed marshmallow fluff with a tinge of smut. Hope you enjoy!**

 **PS: Lyrics to Brown Eyed Girl are courtesy of my long time fave crooner, Van Morrison and it fits this fic so well, it just had to go in as part of the story itself.**

It starts out as a dare. Well, more as one of those things on her bucket list. She and Dylan are headed back up to the lake so she can conquer that demon and jump back in, this time without a fit of coughing and thinking she might actually die.

She had tried it once and it had been an epic fail in her book. The day she and Gunner ran into Norman and Cody at the lake, she'd jumped in, not thinking of the consequences for a girl who had lungs made of glass. At least that's how it had felt as she'd plunged into those icy waters that day; as if her chest may crack open and break into a thousand tiny shards, leaving her to breathe her last.

Maybe this was it, she'd thought in that moment. Maybe this was all the time she had left in this world and this is how Emma DeCody would travel to the next life, if there was such a thing. She'd lived in White Pine Bay for so long, she thought her perception was forever colored in the hopeful things of the world.

She just wasn't used to good things happening to her. For as long as she could remember, it had been just her and her Dad struggling along, pinnacle moments of her childhood peppered with trips to the hospital, physiotherapy sessions and more rounds of medication than you could shake a stick at. It was all a blur, events to connect the dots to the greater moments, like her father getting the news that she was getting a brand new set of lungs. Or, as she glances to the subject of most of her thoughts lately, meeting this man she had come to love.

When she'd met Dylan Massett the first time, she'd hardly given him a second glance. Of course, she hadn't known him then. Then, he was just Norman's older brother, barely a blip on her radar since she was so hopelessly hung up on Norman at the time.

She almost cringes thinking about it now. But fate had intervened and that night that she'd stayed to help out with Norman when he'd gone off the rails, she thought that night might have forged hers and Dylan's paths together forever.

Now, as she sits across the seat of his truck from him, he is being so cute and awkward stealing glances at her every five minutes. He doesn't think she notices, but she does. She notices everything about him, she thinks.

The way he looks at her when he smiles; she sighs to herself. He has a certain glint that comes in his eyes that he doesn't have when he looks at other people and a girl would have to be blind not to notice it. It makes her blush sometimes, the intensity with which Dylan Massett looks at her.

She catches him again from the corner of her eye and she finally calls him out on it.

"You're acting weird. What are you up to?" She eyes him suspiciously as he glances at her as she speaks and then turns his attention back to the road, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Though they haven't been together for long, she has gotten to be able to read him pretty well.

"I'm acting weird?" He pretends to be incredulous, gesturing at her with one hand outstretched in dramatic fashion. "You're the one being all weird, sitting over there looking gorgeous in all your weirdness." She loves the way his eyes crinkle up when he is teasing her.

She decides to play along. Maybe she can wrestle the truth out of him. "Oh, I'm weird now?" It's her turn to feign incredulity. "You know very well I have to be weird in order to fit in with your weird family." She quips and can't help the giggle that bubbles up from her throat.

He is smiling now, too. "Well, that's a fair point." The sun is streaming through the window on her side and he squints against the light behind her, pretending to be disturbed by what he sees. "But I mean look at you." He draws down his eyebrows in mock disgust. "Just weird."

"Yeah, I'm sorry to burden you with that. I'm sure it must be embarrassing being seen with me." But she is laughing and he turns on the radio then, starting to sing.

Then it is her turn to look at him with mock disgust because truly he cannot carry a tune in a bucket. Which she guesses that is why he is singing "Brown-Eyed Girl" to the top of his lungs.

Hey where did we go?  
Days when the rains came  
Down in the hollow  
Playin' a new game  
Laughing and a running hey, hey  
Skipping and a jumping  
In the misty morning fog with  
Our hearts a thumpin' and you  
My brown eyed girl  
You're my brown eyed girl

He stops singing and she sighs as she slides her hand over to his lap and he reaches for her fingers instantly, lacing them together and pulling her hand up to his lips to press a kiss to the back of her hand _. This_. Moments like this right here are when she feels she needs to pinch herself because, again, good things don't happen to her. But here she is and here they are. And this with Dylan, it's _really_ good.

He lets their hands fall back to his lap and she smiles at him. "I'm on to you, Dylan. You're definitely up to something." She narrows her eyes at him but his give nothing away. Well, almost nothing.

A few minutes later, they pull onto the gravel path that will take them to the lake and find a place to park his truck.

She has to laugh at how nearly comical he is bolting out of the truck as soon as it has stopped just so he can come around to her side and open her door. At first she thought he did it because of her illness, but later she came to realize that was just part of who Dylan Massett is; the guy who opens doors for his girl.

"Don't we need anything?" She asks him, reaching for her bag. She'd brought a towel to dry off on afterwards. She is wearing her brand new bathing suit under her sweater and jeans. It is unseasonably warm and they are taking advantage. It had been near 70s all week and she knows the lake will likely still be cold, but not nearly as cold as it had been the first time. As nervous as she is fearing a repeat experience, she feels at least the odds are already in her favor in that regard.

"Nah. Where's your sense of adventure? We got each other and there's a rope with our name on it." He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"Down boy." She laughs as his outright innuendo but truly she feels a surge of heat between her thighs at the implication of rope in regards to the two of them.

They had made love for the first time two nights ago and it was wonderful. Dylan is a very patient and tender lover and she blushes now remembering how she had called out his name when she came. They'd frozen for a moment, worried to death that her father had heard and was going to come running, busting the door down any moment.

They had a good laugh, musing that Will DeCody likely couldn't hear her over the sounds of his own snoring and they had gone back to making love until the wee hours of the morning. Despite the fact that he'd told her if she hurt herself, he'd kill her, he hadn't had to make good on that oath. At least not yet. Not the first time they had sex or the seventh time, this morning, because yes she is counting. It is _that_ good.

He reaches for her hand and she takes it readily as they pick their way through the woods, making their way to the lake. This day trip is just what they need. Everything had happened so quickly lately with Norman being in the hospital and Norma and Alex getting married and their impending move to Seattle. It seems like with everything that had transpired, this was the first chance they'd really had to come up for air.

"I love how spontaneous this is. It's so freeing." She takes a deep breath, pulling in the clean mountain air, wondering at the fact that everything even smelled fresh and new with this new set of lungs. Or maybe it is the man walking beside her brightening her outlook on life. She literally can see the forest in the midst of all the trees and that's a feeling that she'd like to hang onto for as long as possible.

"Well good, because for our next trip, we're going sky-diving." He says from beside her as they step into a small clearing.

"Sky-diving, Dylan?" She says, feigning exasperation and turning to face him, pulling teasingly on his hand.

"Yes, sky-diving and then next Tuesday, we have a trip to the moon planned. I'm so stoked for that." He is grinning a mile wide and she loves it. It looks so good on him. Something about the air out here isn't just for her. It is for him too.

She turns back to their path, anxious to get to the lake and her witty retort to his ridiculousness dies on her lips for there in the midst of the clearing, is the most elaborate picnic she has ever seen in her life. The clearing itself is a tiny meadow of wildflowers, bright pink and yellow blooms dotting the landscape that seem perfectly centered by the large seven-star quilt he has laid out along with assorted pillows in matching tones of pink and forest green and pale yellow. It looks like she has stepped into the pages of a storybook and she turns to look at him, knowing that there are tears in her eyes and hating it at the same time.

"Ugh, don't look at me. You did all this?" She is stunned at the attention to detail as he nods at her and she knows he is watching her every reaction. He had clearly been paying very close attention to her girlish whims and thought he had probably taken a few notes from the scrapbook she had been making of her "bucket list". It was a giant book of all the things she wanted to do before she died. She hadn't looked at it since she'd received her new lungs, but she guessed Dylan had taken her up on the offer to peruse it.

She realizes in that moment that he'd taken a page out of her very own storybook and created her a picturesque picnic by a lake with the love of her life. That's what she had penned in the corner of the page. She has always believed in writing down her dreams. Even if some of them never got realized, they deserve to be written down.

She realizes that, on some level, she has tried to create moments for herself and failed epically. First with Gunner and then with Norman. And yet here she is with Dylan who has done all this of his own accord.

"You took a big chance on the rain we've been having lately with all this nice stuff out here." She remarks and she can't help the giggle that bursts up from her throat as he tugs on her wrist, pulling her firmly into his arms.

His hands splay across her back and hers come up to find purchase against his shirt. It's moments like this that make her lose her breath when she's with him. She looks up at him a little dazed and breathless at his sudden display of affection. "I go to all this trouble and all you can worry about is whether or not the pillows will get wet." His voice is low as he leans in and rubs his nose against hers and it is such a Dylan thing to do.

His baby blues are cutting straight through her. "Well someone should worry about the pillows, Dylan." She teases looking up into his eyes and she loves this dance between them. It is something she has never had with anyone before.

He pulls away abruptly and turns, running towards the lake and it takes her a full five seconds to catch on to the fact that he means for them to race. "Cheater!" She calls out, laughing as she chases after him, watching as he strips his shirt off, tossing it to the ground along the way. She hurries to catch up, while following suit and pulling off clothes as she goes.

Finally they reach the edge of the little rock cliff where they are planning on jumping, just like before. She is breathless and considerably less clothed by the time she reaches where Dylan is bent over at the waist catching his breath.

"If you hadn't quit smoking already, I would have beat you." She is smiling down at him and he finally raises back up and levels a stare.

"Why do you think I gave myself a head start?" Her heart lurches into her throat. He has such unfailing confidence in her and her abilities, but still keeps her ultimate safety a priority. Like this. They had already agreed that he would jump first. Just in case she needs him at the bottom. It makes sense and she loves his gallant gesture. He is literally putting himself in harm's way ahead of her. He loves her _that_ much.

"You ready?" He asks and she nods at him quickly, beaming a smile in his direction. He steps towards her and presses his lips to hers in a quick kiss. "See you at the bottom, beautiful."

With a flash of a grin he grabs onto the rope and swings himself out, letting himself go at exactly midway across the lake. He hits the water like a stone, his feet plunging in and she hears him whoop in happiness as he hits the surface with a splash. So it _is_ cold. But he loves this kind of thing. He is so much different than she had thought. It is like he isn't afraid to take chances and maybe she shouldn't be either. Maybe that's all life is, she thinks. One long succession of chances and somewhere along the way, you find someone to take those chances with.

She takes a deep breath, pulling air deep into her chest, relishing the smell of pine as it hits her nose mingled with the unmistakable pungent odor of dirt and moss covering the forest floor in a thick carpet of green all around them. She grabs the rope as it swings back her way and without even pausing, she clutches it with both hands, the fibers scraping along the skin of her fingers, and flings herself off the rocks.

As she is jumping and then falling she has the sensation of the world sort of snapping in on itself. Everything is crystal clear in that moment, as if she is frozen in time. That instant before she hits the water, she realizes everything she's always needed has been within her all along.

These new lungs she has only recently gotten are now _hers_ and as she hits the icy waters this time, they aren't made of glass and neither is she.

She seems to buoy mid-fall within the water, as if she has become part of the lake itself and maybe she is; the moment is that fluid. Then gravity takes over and she is shooting to the surface, going upwards toward the edge of water and the sky beyond.

She breaks the surface of the lake and as she pulls in her first breath, fresh clean air and clear blue skies have never tasted so good.

She feels freer than she has ever before felt. Coming up for air was the best idea they'd had in a long time.

She can finally breathe.

Dylan is so in love with this girl. So in love, he thinks as he watches her throw caution to the wind and swing out high over the lake. He thinks of her in that moment like a bird flying free. All her life she's been tethered to a tank that helps her do something the rest of the world takes for granted. He would venture to say that Emma DeCody will not ever take a breath for granted. Not with that new set of lungs.

And as she jumps into the lake a few feet from him, in a split second he is stricken with fear. What if somehow she hits the water and her stitches tear loose? What if she can't breathe? What if-? But then before he knows it she is bobbing back to the surface, drawing in a lungful of air and the joy on her face as she opens her eyes brings tears to his own. He knows what this moment meant to her. The fear had resonated with her from the last time that she had been here and he is so glad he had taken the extra time to make this day possible for her.

Then again, he thinks there is no end to what he will do for this girl. Emma has become his entire world and he's just so damn grateful. For the first time in his life, he doesn't feel like he's just drifting along like some forgotten sidecar. Norma and Norman had shut him out his entire life and he'd only recently begun to understand that it wasn't him with the problem.

Their relationship is twisted and why he had tried to make himself fit into their warped scenario his entire life was now a bit beyond him. He had left the house the other day and he hadn't looked back like he normally did. As he drove away, watching that vacancy sign disappear in his rearview mirror he had felt a sense of freedom. The neon red hung out in his rearview until it was no more than a dot and then it was gone.

He wonders sometimes why it took him so long to figure out that he was looking for acceptance in this world in all the wrong places. He didn't think until he'd found Emma he understood what true love was. Unconditional love.

He paddles his way over to her and looking upon her face, such unabashed happiness washing her features until it feels like her smile might actually break him in half. She is so beautiful.

She is laughing and he can't help but laugh along with her. "That was amazing." He loves this happy lilt in her voice and he wishes they could hold onto this moment forever. He swims until he's right in front of her and he's almost afraid to touch her, almost afraid whatever spell this is will be broken somehow.

But then she's wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and he can't think about anything else but how good it feels, right now, with her. His hands come up to her hips and he feels her rock against him. With purpose.

He gazes into her eyes and it's like he's falling all over again. Into this lake, into this love, into _her_. He idly wonders how fast they can make it back to the house and he decides that there is no way they'd ever even make it _that_ far. Already she is spreading sweet, open-mouthed kisses across the wet of his neck and it shoots a bolt of pleasure straight to his cock.

She is shivering in his arms, though, and as much as it pains him, he pulls himself away from her mouth. "You're freezing." He says simply, taking in her lips, slightly blue-tinged and quivering with the cold of the water.

"Then warm me up." She doesn't know it, but when she is aroused there is this tiny yellow glint that intersperses with the chocolate depth of her eyes. It's just a moment, flecks of light before they are finally choked out by her pupils dilating with want. But he thinks when it happens, it's like fire because he can't remember ever feeling like burning except when he's with her.

Like now, her core is pressed against him and for a split second he thinks about reaching between them and shoving her bathing suit bottoms to the floor of the lake and entering her in one stride. Just thinking about her heat wrapping around his dick has him groaning against her neck, his lips coursing a trail up to the shell of her ear where he knows she'll be shivering for completely different reasons than the cold.

It shouldn't be possible for his dick to be this hard in wake of this cold as fuck lake, but it is. _So hard_.

"We should go get warmed up." He isn't sure who he is trying to convince at this point. Emma has already reached between them and is cupping him through his boxers. The material is impossibly thin and does little to keep the warmth of her hand from seeping through to slide against his skin. _Jesus_.

"Yes, that's what I am trying to say. We can warm each other up, Dylan." That little giggle again, a very dirty one, he decides. This Emma is the side he might love the best. There is soft and sweet Emma and sleepy Emma and playful Emma. But _this Emma_? This is sex kitten Emma and good fucking Christ, she is something else when she slips into that role so easily and he can't resist her.

But then she's pulling away and moving out of the water towards the shore and now he's the one left standing there watching her go, confused for a second until he realizes she has continued their earlier game of chase. Well this time, he means to catch _her_.

But the cold has made his limbs stiff, among other things, and he feels somewhat like a newborn deer making his way back up the steep bank and yes, he does fall behind because he can't seem to stop walking every so often just so he can watch her backside twist and turn as she makes her own way back to their picnic.

He thinks idly that he has packed a full supper for them but right now, he has a different sort of hunger in mind and as he finally gets to the top, gasping a bit for air, he has to pause to even his breathing. That gives Emma the head start she needs and he laughs as she turns to look at him over her shoulder, the top to her bathing suit now gone, the yellow and white material flapping in the wind behind her. She is merciless when it comes to winning. He'd seen that side of her in the hospital when they'd played poker and she'd beat him. Every single time.

It's almost sinful letting her win this, but as he makes his way to her slowly, so slowly, the intent burning in his eyes, it's okay. She stops just short of the blanket, hair dripping down her face as she shucks her bathing suit bottoms to the forest floor and just stands there and lets him look his fill.

He knows she can see his erection because she glances down and there's that dirty little giggle again. As he approaches the blanket she's already lying back waiting for him. "You're going to get the pillows wet." He can't keep the grin from his face as he lowers himself to her, propping his hands on either side of her head, his eyes taking her all in at once as if he is a man starved from her sight. And he thinks that maybe he is.

"Fuck the pillows." She says.

"Someone has to worry about the pillows, Emma." He can't help but tease her.

"Dylan?" Her question is slightly breathless.

"Yes?" He can't quite keep the grin off his face.

"Shut up and kiss me." She says, pulling his head down towards her and then he is slotting his mouth over hers and her pretty lips sigh into his mouth as they open under his, tongues sliding, breaths mingling. He reaches between them to run his hands down her side to skate over her hip and he feels the moment she relaxes under him, ready for his touch.

Her thighs are already parted as his finger teases her open and she moans deep, vibrating his very core with the promise of her heat. He tears his lips from hers so he can look between them where his fingers are working her open, his callused tips combing through the sparse auburn curls to find that tight bud at the top of her sex.

She is stunningly laid back in pleasure, legs spread to his gaze, and he thinks maybe he could die right here, right now and never wish for another thing. This is his entire bucket list. Being with Emma.

She is perfectly imperfect with her pink rosebud nipples jutting up above her round breasts and below that the scars that remind him of her fortitude. He takes a moment before dipping his head down to one breast, to look up at her, her face awash in adoration. For him. And he's too stunned to move for a second until finally he brings his lips to that pert bud, sucking it into his mouth, hearing her sigh his name in welcome, hands coming up to weave in his hair.

Then he is working his way down her body, his intent very clear with every open-mouthed kiss he places upon one breast then the other, every square inch of her scars, the dip in her belly right above her navel, the cradle of her hip, the inside of one thigh, then the other. She is nearly writhing under his mouth by the time he reaches her thighs. Finally she arches her back as he nestles between her parted legs.

His tongue parts her first, licking up her perfect slit, as she writhes under him. He moves his hands up to cup her ass and he pulls her gently down the blanket towards his face. He grips her hips firmly, holding her against his face, placing where she is split for him right against the flat of his tongue as he begins a rhythm, of long, slow, sure, languorous laves against her core.

She tastes like bliss and he takes a chance on her having caught on to the rhythm to pull one hand from stilling her hips, inserting one long finger into her heat. God, she's so wet. So tight. He is not even sure he will last getting inside her, but he wants to try.

He hasn't been able to make her come like this before but he can tell she's close. He spares a glance up her body to find that her hands are no longer clutching the blanket at her side. Instead they are cupped over her breasts, palming them softly as his mouth works her below.

Fuck, it's hot watching her do that and his cock twitches against the blanket. He continues to lick her clit with strong, sure strokes as his finger works her pussy. She is moaning above him and one glance up her body shows him that she is now pinching her nipples, giving them a tiny twist and he wonders if this is how she does it when she is alone. A few more strokes of his tongue and then she comes apart beneath him, hips writhing as that gentle oasis pours out of her and he laps up every single drop he can, thinking idly that the pillows are definitely in danger of getting wet now.

He smirks as he rests his head against her leg, wiping one hand over his chin, waiting patiently as she comes back down to earth. He thinks looking up at her like this, she might be an angel floated right down from heaven because he's never seen anything so beautiful as Emma DeCody out here, like this, face flush with pleasure that he put there.

"That was incredible." She looks down at where Dylan is resting his head against her leg and suddenly now she has a case of nerves. He has just put his tongue inside her and drank everything she had to give him and it is almost absurd that she wants to cover herself now. But he's studying her in open adoration and she is blushing from head to toe.

"You're incredible." He is saying and then she is pulling him up, up, up her body until he's nestled between her thighs and she doesn't recall him removing his boxers but there he is right outside her entrance and all she does is lay back and grip his arms where they've come to rest on either side of her shoulders. He reaches with one hand and drags the head of his length against the slick of her, sliding deliciously against her clit that is still reeling from her release and she keens against the motion. Then he is sliding inside and she hisses against the pull and stretch of his girth inside her walls.

" _Ahh. Feels good. Yes."_ He is saying and he is going so achingly slow and she wants to tell him that she won't break, but she can't speak. He is hitting her in all the right places, that pillow having worked its way under her hips, tilting her just so. As if to offer herself to him and she thinks she has. She has laid herself out on a platter for the taking and she thinks she will be consumed by Dylan Massett loving her and she also thinks that is okay.

He is hitting her with long and slow but firm strides that bottom him out on each thrust and she is coming apart again before she even knows it. He reaches under her, his hands sliding between her back and the now soaked pillow and gathers her into his arms as he fucks her.

Because yes, at this point, he is most certainly fucking her, nearly into the ground below them, the forest around them. Fucking her out here out in the open, when anyone could happen along and just might, and maybe this is what she needed all along. Maybe this exercise to free her from the demons of jumping into that lake was about more than just that. Maybe she is being freed from all the things that before held her back and she is just now allowing herself to breathe.

As he clutches her to him, his hands splayed across her back, the only sounds in the forest besides the distant tittering of birds are the soft gasps as she holds herself to him, the slide of their bodies aiding in their rhythm.

He gasps into her neck as his back becomes absolutely stiff and his strokes become surer, longer, harder. She grasps onto his shoulders, fingers pressing into the sides of his neck, pressing her forehead to his, shoring him up as he drives them higher and higher and then he cries out her name in one long gasping breath as he spills his seed deep inside her.

It isn't until afterwards that she realizes she came too, just a split second after he does and she has that sensation again of the world snapping in on itself. Everything is focused and crystal clear and as her body shudders, she realizes she is made to love this man.

It's a long time before they finally get around to eating the picnic. The first thing they have to do is go back over their path through the woods and pick up lost articles of clothing that they'd lost in their haste to get to the lake, which proves interesting in their state of undress. Dylan makes a big show of giving Emma the blanket and draping it around her like a grand cape.

"I hereby crown you queen of the forest, milady." He bows gallantly. Completely nude; he bows and she is struck with a fit of giggles so fierce, it's all they can do to get their clothes back on before they freeze. By this time, it's nearly full on dark, but it's okay. Dylan planned for this too. He lights the candles he's set about and he's so grateful that the rain did hold off so they can have this.

They are sitting and sharing a grape soda between them and he doesn't think anything has ever tasted so good as leaning over and kissing her in the midst of all of it, if only because he can.

"Oh!" She exclaims and he is turning his head to look behind him in the direction of her gaze. And there it is. One little firefly. He scans the horizon thinking maybe his eyes have played tricks on him. It's far too late in the season, but there it is, blinking in cadence to the tree frogs around them.

She holds out her hand and he watches in wonder as it lands on her outstretched palm. Leave it to Emma to coax the last bit of light into her grasp.

"It's beautiful." She says and he thinks it really is. It's so beautiful out here with this girl and the last bit of light in the sky come to rest in her hand. It's fitting, he thinks.

She has brought such light to his world, she should have every bit of warmth and light in her grasp. It flies off into the night and they watch it in silence. Her hand comes over to his lap to lace with his fingers just about the time the rain finally lets loose from the sky.

He looks over at her and already knows he will find her smiling up into the sky. He doesn't even mind it. The rain can come pouring down. The moon can disappear behind the clouds into the inky night. It doesn't matter. He has Emma beside him and that's all the light he'll ever need.

This sap-fest is brought to you by moi. This ship hit me hard and fast in the last few weeks and I hope I did this pairing justice with this little fic meant to be a one-shot. I really enjoyed writing it and please let me know what you think in the review/comments section. I love hearing from my readers. Xoxoxo


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